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lizzieraindrops · 1 year

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Destiny is a story about shapes and grief.

I think I may have figured out Destiny. I don't think the primary conflict between the Light and the Darkness is the philosophical issue we thought it was.

I got thinking about it after all this talking, with many others but especially @jazzhandsmcleg, about the way all of The Witch Queen DLC and its 4 seasons have had overarching narratives surrounding trauma and cycles of violence and grief, and the way the Darkness and the Light are characterized by their different approaches to it.

In TWQ, Savathûn is given a true second chance for her species in the Light. But as Ikora points out, she struggles to break free of the learned patterns of the Darkness, continuing the pattern of deception and violence.

Same with Season of the Risen - it’s the Warlords and Dark Ages all over again, but this time it’s the Hive. It forces once again to ask: what does it mean to be given a second chance if this is what you do with it? Temper this with Saladin’s story about the girl from the Dark Ages who he protected, but who became a cruel mortal Warlord in her own right. Crow objects to the mental torture of the Hive Lightbearers and he tries to break from the cycle of interspecies violence, but unintentionally ends up continuing it by killing the Psion and heightening tensions between humans and the Uluran.

Season of the Haunted!!! Literally, the entire thing is about confronting your traumas and greatest fears and the worst parts about yourself and beginning to heal them, making something better from them. Completely changing the game by turning Nightmares that torment into Memories that guide you. Crow with the memory of Uldren, Zavala with that of Safiyah, Caiatl that of Ghaul - and most importantly, resolution focuses on how they, specifically have been held back from healing by their self-incriminating Nightmares. It challenges the cycle of continuing violence on a very personal level. Eris even has patrol dialogue describing the a Nightmare as a thing of pain craving only more pain: "Such is the cycle."

Season of Plunder brings up the very same questions on a much higher organizational level. It gives us Eido and Eramis taking very different jaded vs. new-hope approaches to the legacy of the Whirlwind, asking: can we change? Are we defined by generational trauma forever? Can we continue to grow and change for the better even though it can never be undone? Though Eido is clearly young and naïve, we're clearly given the opportunity and narrative nudge to sympathize with her desire and hope for growth and redemption, both for the Eliksni overall, and for Eramis in particular.

And we're not even done with Season of the Seraph, but it already goes incredibly hard asking the same questions, again from a more personal angle. How far, and through how many generations is trauma transmitted? From the Bray family to Rasputin, to Felwinter to Osiris to Ikora – how do we fix this? How do we fix this? How do you defeat an enemy who IS war itself? What can you do to end an endless cosmic cycle of violence?

Go back and back and back in Destiny's lore even back to D1, and the majority of conflicts seem driven by this cycle of grief and revenge and violence. The entire line of humanity's war with the Hive goes back through Oryx's grief for Crota and the First Crota Fireteam and Eriana-3's grief for her wife Wei Ning. Even the Hive siblings' pact with the Worm Gods, though manipulated by Rhulk, was driven by the pain and grief they endured for themselves and their people, and wanting to escape that cruel pattern. The entire predicament of the Eliksni and their conflict with humans is driven by the trauma and grief and loss of the Whirlwind. Even Caiatl's empire, a conquering force that would be highly regarded by the sword logic, now must reckon with the same kind of loss in the Fall of Torobatl.

How do you escape this cycle and stay free of it?

I think, this year, we are finally seeing the beginnings of an answer.

I can't highly enough recommend the TWQ Collector's Edition lorebook (page scans & transcript) and The Hidden Dossier (page scans & transcript) that immediately follows it. What I've been calling Ikora's theory of "memory and grace" that she develops through the course of these two lore books is a balanced philosophy of memory/Darkness and grace/Light (which honestly deserves an entire post of its own). I think it clearly points toward the final resolution the story of the conflict between the Darkness and the Light.

In light of this, something in the Calus part of the new Lightfall CE lorebook (images, transcript) really jumped out at me.

“The doomed and the damned left the record of their downfall in the OXA. Your star got its name from the oldest myths in that archive. And when your mother told your father that story…the star became your name. A prayer that all will go as it must…and the way it must go is struggle.” “Aiat.” Not a word in Ulurant or any other Cabal tongue. “But Caiatl means something else..” “Yes. ‘It may not always go as it needs to go.’ A good name for a soldier." "A strange name for a daughter," I say. "Your father chose it for your mother's sake. Out of love."

And because the parallel is so overwhelmingly striking, I am once again going to reference philosophy/worldbuilding from the Young Wizards universe, which has great resonance with Destiny lore and which Bungie has been long aware of and has even been referenced in Forsaken-era canon lore.

“all the fair things skewed, all the beauty twisted by the dark Lone Power watching on his steed. If only there were some way he could be otherwise if he wanted to! For here was his name, a long splendid flow of syllables in the Speech, wild and courageous in its own way—and it said that he had not always been so hostile; that he got tired sometimes of being wicked, but his pride and his fear of being ridiculed would never let him stop. Never, forever, said the symbol at the very end of his name, the closed circle that binds spells into an unbreakable cycle and indicates lives bound the same way.” [...] “Nita bent quickly over the Book and, with the pen, in lines of light, drew from that final circle an arrow pointing upward, the way out, the symbol that said change could happen—if, only if—and together they finished the Starsnuffer’s name in the Speech, said the new last syllable, made it real.” Excerpt From: Diane Duane. “So You Want to Be a Wizard, New Millennium Edition.”

CAIATL’S NAME IS LITERALLY THE UP-AND-OUT SYMBOL.

I know I'm probably only talking to the handful of Destiny players from the (very small) Young Wizards fandom, but what you need to know is that this moment is pivotal and sets up the series-long theme of hope for an eventual exit from the cycle. It's the incredibly small, overwhelmingly improbable possibility of a second chance, a new start for the Lone Power, the source of all strife and suffering, who itself is driven by loss and pain. A concept of extended grace that is inherently tied to the philosophy of the Light.

“Billions of years, it took. All the redemptions there have ever been went toward this; from the greatest to the least. And finally in the fullness of time you came along, and took my role, of your own will, and woke up a race powerful enough to change the whole Universe, and gave them the fire.” She glanced up at the mobiles and smiled. “How could he resist such a bait? He took the gamble: he always does. And losing, he won.” [...] “The Defender reached down and put a hand into the shadow. “And we are going where such matters are transcended… where all his old pains will shift. Not forgotten, but transformed. Life in this universe will never have such a friend. And as for His inventions… look closely at Death, and see what it can become.” The long, prone darkness began to burn, from inside, the way a mountain seems to do with sunset. “Brother,” the Defender said. “Come on. They’re waiting.” Excerpt From: Diane Duane. “High Wizardry New Millennium Edition.”

This is the devil’s second chance, its homecoming. Grace among the memory. How do we heal this? By fixing it. By making and TAKING that opportunity of grace.

Likewise, Destiny is shaping up into its own universe’s story of this Reconfiguration, the remaking of everything that exists through the act of a second chance, both offered and taken, with full awareness of the irreversibility of harm already caused.

Destiny isn’t the story of the light and the darkness fighting each other. That happens, but that’s not what it’s ABOUT.

It’s “And I know exactly what we are. We’re best frenemies with a history of intense mutual hurt and messy reconciliation, leaving a deep tenderness as well as an almost impenetrable knot of scars. What could be simpler?” (Chalco)

It's “For so long, I believed peace was beyond my reach. No more. I have found it in guiding others down the same path that saved me. But… I might allow myself to want more than peace. What, I am not certain. Is joy the word? Might I find that again?” (Eris)

It's “Second chances… hm. Turns out I've been using mine wrong. I thought being a Guardian was my destiny. That wielding the Light for good was the most I had to offer. But it's clear now. This is what the Traveler chose me for. I was reforged in the Light for a purpose. To remake something dead and gone… into something beautiful. To learn how to forge something new from what we were. Everything Uldren did to the Reef, the Scorn… Fikrul. I have a responsibility — no — a calling to make them whole. And… I can't replace Cayde. But I can cover his old patrols — maybe organize the Hunters a bit, if they'll let me. Clean up some of my mess. I don't know if I can fix everything Uldren left broken… but I can try.” (Crow)

We aren’t defeating the Darkness. That’s never what it’s been about. It’s about breaking the cycle of trauma and grief with memory and grace. We're transcending the Final Shape, but we're not here to destroy it or become it. We’re harmonizing the Darkness and the Light into a sustainable balance to create something new from the wounded remains.

We're here to heal the broken relationship between the Winnower and the Gardener.

That's all that it is, in the end. They had a falling out, and now they hurt, and they hurt each other, and everything else, forever. Breaking free from that cycle begins and ends with them.

Is that fair? No, it's not.

But Destiny is – unhingedly, brilliantly, paradoxically – a FPS game about how to stop killing each other, growing ever more into a framework of restorative and reparative justice.

The story says, we are all culpable, we have all done awful shit and have endless potential to do more awful shit – AND, most critically, we all have the potential to do better (grace). AND, the act of making the conscious choice to do so and letting that happen is the only way for things to get better (memory).

The Collapse happened and it was horrible, the Red War happened and it was horrible, the Great Disaster happened and it was horrible, Twilight Gap happened and it was horrible...AND?? HOW ARE YOU GOING TO RESPOND? The Whirlwind happened and it was horrible! The Fall of Torobatl happened and it was horrible! Your species' Choice was stolen and you became the most prolifically violent killers in the universe and it was and is horrible! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Are you going to make it more horrible? Or are you going to make it BETTER????

Are you going to fight for the Final Shape, or for the gentle kingdom ringed in spears?

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river-shards · 11 months

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Not even Drifter can survive the Grimacing.

(Click for better quality!)

COMMISSIONS OPEN!

#my art #digital art #doodle #shitpost #the drifter #destiny the game #d2 #destiny drifter #drifter destiny #my yw #destiny oc #destiny meme #that damn shake #my guardian's so smol...#lil wolf #Vesper-1

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mylensview2022 · 1 year

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Ghost: *calls Osiris*

Osiris: What is it Ghost? Ugh do you even know what time it is? (Yw: nO) (Saint-14 in the back: is that the Guardian?)

Ghost: Hi! Yeah Are threadlings like Cats or dogs? (Yw: Looks like a squirrel tho - aA-)

Osiris: Wh-(Yw: im okAy-ooF- ) Didn’t you say threadlings were a by part of your rift??

Ghost: uhhhhhh YeaH but, this one is …more domestic???

Osiris: how on earth could that-

Ghost: *turns on video feed*

Yw: “Yeah so funny thing”- scrEEEe ෴⁠

Osiris: our place in 20 mins. (Saint: *gets out of bed* I’ll go prepare some hot chocolate)

Ghost & Guardian: okey ;-;👍

#young wolf #the guardian #destiny 2 ghost #destiny 2 osiris #osiris #lightfall #its stranding time #doodles #silly doodles #destiny 2 #destiny 2 guardian #destiny 2 lightfall #saint 14 #o14 #o14 & yw

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a-driftamongopenstars · 27 days

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a small Guardian x Crow ficlet, inspired by me having consecutive nightmares for way too long now 😩

Crow was... running. The reality was loose under his feet and kept changing directions. But he knew he had to keep going, forward and forward.

Until he ran into the Guardian, whose face, contorted with anger, scared him. And he didn't know how to keep that fear down, so he screamed and screamed and screamed and waited until his screaming made his voice nothing but a hoarse echo.

And then he woke up.

His fingers grip onto the blankets, feeling the warmth of the fabric, the tight folds. His heart is pounding in his chest, trying to run away. Trying to make him run away.

The Guardian sits up beside him, and Crow flinches. His throat still hurts from screaming, even if he didn't utter a sound.

They ask him if he is alright.

"I... You are not mad at me, are you?"

They smile at him and shake their head. A resolution so clear, it wipes away some of the fear.

"Another nightmare," Crow mutters, rubbing his sleepy eyes, trying to make the burning tears in the corners of his eyes go away, unbidden. He is so tired.

As the Guardian guides him into their arms, Crow counts the lights outside the window. He feels for the fabric, and then for the Guardian's body. He feels the smell of them both, of their home. His mouth tastes with anxious acid.

But his heart slows down and reality sets in with a kinder sensation around him.

He doesn't need to run. He doesn't need to scream.

The Guardian kisses his forehead as Crow nestles within their embrace. He is not sure he wants to sleep just yet, so he wraps himself in the comfort of being held and reassured.

Maybe tomorrow those dreams will not find him again.

#destiny 2 #destiny 2 fanfiction #guardian x crow #yw x crow #young wolf x Crow #the Guardian #the crow #fanfiction #driftcreates

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ahamkara-apologist · 6 months

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Actually you know what. I'm in an oc-loving mood and want to hear about other people's Young Wolves rn and how they intersect with what we get in canon. Do y'all have reasons why your guardians are so quiet in canon/why they prefer to be called by their title rather than their name, or is that something you disreguard entirely as a blank space Bungie left for you to fill in? How do they mesh with canon in that reguard?

(My Young Wolf is named Aeris, and the reason why he prefers to go either by 'guardian' or 'young wolf' is because it sounds so similar to Eris's name. That they're both quiet Hunters with thousand-yard stares and a penchent for researching aliens/creeping people out in the process doen't help the matter, either. Aeris decided to let Eris be the one with 'name rights' mostly because she's his senior, but also partially because he gets a little freaked out by people he doesn't know using his first name simply bc that's a good metric for them being someone he should remember, and if he doesn't know them then oops he fucked up there)

#i probs asked this already but fuck it im in the mood again #many people have spicy yws so im curious!#destiny 2 #reblog bls I wanna be able to rb them all again to see #gotta go study rn

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prosperousduckscommuteviawaffle · 1 year

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Ghaul: Fitting the traveler would send you…

Eramis: There you are. I knew it would be you.

Calus: Oh, is that you, my tenacious little Guardian?

YW:

#YW: Why are you so obsessed with me?#All of them probably: It would be this asshole wouldn’t it?#destiny 2 #young wolf #eramis #ghaul #calus

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orbdotexe · 1 year

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If the Young Wolf officiated Crucible matches, I think their voicelines would be a mix between Gambit and Iron Banner (oof whiplash for the people used to Shaxx screaming encouragement. They get a significantly quieter handler they probably thought was a myth)

Like. It'd be smooth and have references to their accomplishments and your Class (Hold the line, Titan. Let them break on your shield.)

But also a darker tone ("They've fucked up." if you get heavy ammo, uncontested, or a simple "Let them run.") and a mixture of jokes/puns and ominous stuff based on subclass when you cast a super ("String em up, Hunter" if you're Threadrunner/"Heaven's heading to war" if you're a Dawnblade)

They'd definitely still get excited on a kill streak/ending one (They’re fighting over rubble until they get out of your way!)

Maybe if you got the We Ran Out Of Medals, they'd say something like "Now you're a queen/king I'd bow to" (i cannot forget when Mara expected them to bow and then gave up on it, back in Lost. i died)

I think they'd speak sort of like Saladin, but with a lighter tone (most times), and an audible smirk like Drifter.

Other lines I liked but left out:

You think I stayed under when Xol buried me? Get up and fight. (your team mercy'd)

Even Ghaul fell. (end someone's 20 killstreak)

Make 'em regret standing up to you. (match start)

Leave 'em in the grave they dug for you (1v3 elimination/survival)

I pity them. They think they've won (enemy nearing victory)

I'll tell the Witness you'll be coming back for more (enemy team mercy'd)

The Cold remembers their mistakes. (Revenant super cast. that blizzard is an actual nightmare)

What doesn’t kill you, better run! (killstreak)

Outstranding jo- Shaxx! (followed by the comm cutting. I just thought them being banned from puns is funny. Rare line, set after match won)

#destiny 2 #the young wolf #let Wolf curse 2023 #they deserve it #Ruin would never say a good chunk of this. they may be my YW but I still imagine Canon Wolf much differently #All this would probably be post-D2. they really don't have time to be screwing around yet. and still don't speak much #if we got another Destiny game set after this one. Having Wolf drop into comms every once in awhile or have their own gamemode they watched #over would be cool.#Maybe have it so that. if you played D2. you could choose which character of yours would show up there #hmmmmm Orb is thinking again. orb was banned from that. Orb needs to go back in the forever box #anyway i blame you for this Cryptid. making me think about if Wolf handled a match

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thefirstknife · 11 months

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thoughts on the lore seeming to imply the young wolf might be one of, if not the most powerful active guardian? (example: old farm ambient dialogue indicating that between rise of iron and the red war, the guardian defeated shaxx in the crucible 3-2 https://youtu.be/S1r4wOUFR-4, the only guardian aside from ikora to do so). i personally don't mind it and actually think it's kinda cool, but a lot of people seem really opposed to the idea so im just wondering what your opinion is

Oh that's a cool line, haven't heard it before.

Yeah, I think the Young Wolf is for sure among the stronger Guardians. We are, first and foremost, some sort of an outlier, almost like an anomaly, that affects timelines. In all previous timelines that Elsie knows about, there was never a Young Wolf and we never killed the Black Heart and that one single divergence doomed all other timelines. It's the sole reason why Elsie popped up in D1 to help us with the Black Heart, as it was one of the possible options she hadn't tried yet.

And ever since, we've definitely fulfilled the role of this outlier figure. Obviously, it's hard to say, like, which specific parametres to use to determine how strong a Guardian is and all, but I definitely think that we should count as some of the strongest ever, especially with how well we're capable of commanding both Light and Darkness. There's a reason why Osiris considers us his equal and expects a lot from us.

#destiny 2 #young wolf #ask #ofc anyone's young wolf is their own so if you want your yw to not be super powerful that works too #not sure why people would be opposed to the idea that we're among the strongest #we're clearly super capable and attuned to the paracausal forces and save the universe every 3 months

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lavenderarts · 10 months

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